Thursday, June 10, 2010

I don't like posting about things that might not be true, so I avoid blogging about any of the leaked data. I'm also a staunch supporter of the NDA: if someone has agreed to keep a secret, then they shouldn't betray that trust. In addition, if the developers haven't said it themselves, it's not worth believing... especially in as early a stage as an Alpha test.

Since Blizzard has now released some "official" talent tree previews (the ones at MMO-Champ have designer comments), we can now "safely" look into what they're considering for druids in regards to Cataclysm. Important note: the wowtal (mmo-champ) calculator appears to differ slightly on numbers than the wowhead calculator. I don't know at this point which is more accurate, but I'm going to guess and hope it is the wowhead calc, as the wowtal one says swiftmend heals for 1, wg got a nasty nerf, and imp bark only does 20% bonus armor.

Shredding Attacks moved here from 4th tier. The shred energy-reduction has been nerfed down to 5 per point from 9.

Thick Hide and Feral Instinct appear unchanged.

Third Tier:

Predatory Instincts moved here from 8th tier. It is no longer limited to cat form, but it also no longer grants any sort of AoE-damage reduction: it is only a crit damage boost.

Feral Charge moved here from 5th tier, otherwise appears unchanged.

NEW:Imp Feral Charge: for bear, it increased the damage of your next three attacks, and for cat, it allows ravage to be cast without being stealthed. That's going to mess with my [stealth] modifier macros.

GONE:Sharpened Claws no longer exists in its old form; the name was salvaged to rename Savage Fury, but the talent's old effects were nixed. The talents it opened are now independent or reworked into other talents.

Feral Swiftness appears unchanged.

Fourth Tier:

NEW:Fury Swipes, an auto-attack proc to grant an extra auto-attack in cat or bear. This was probably added to even out our white-to-yellow damage balance, which in WotLK is much more heavily reliant on yellow attacks.

GONE: Primal Precision.

Nurturing Instinct was moved here from the 5th tier; appears otherwise unchanged.

Primal Fury is unchanged, aside from removing the pre-requisite talent.

Fifth Tier:

Predatory Strikes: no longer a pre-req for Heart of the Wild and has been slightly reworked. At 2 talent points (previously 3), this talent now focuses purely on cat-form. As before, it retains the effect of proccing insta-cast nature spells off your finishing moves (20% chance per combo point consumed); however, instead of boosting raw AP, it now boosts the crit of Ravage by 50% if your target is high (90%+) health.

Brutal Impact was nerfed in terms of the bash cooldown: reduces by 10 seconds rather than 30.

Heart of the Wild moved here from 6th tier and made into the pre-req for LotP; appears otherwise unchanged.

Survival of the Fittest nerfed; it no longer increases all attributes by 6%. The armor bonus and built-in "defense cap" are unchanged.

Natural Reaction appears unchanged.

Seventh Tier:

King of the Jungle: no longer reduces the energy cost of feral forms, and is now a pre-requisite for a new talent, Primal Madness. Moved here from 9th tier.

Primal Tenacity nerfed; reduces damage by only 15% while stunned in cat form, down from 30%.

LotP and iLotP appear unchanged.

Eighth Tier:

Protector of the Pack and Infected Wounds appear unchanged.

Ninth Tier:

NEW:Primal Madness 2/2. Cats extend their energy pools by 12 extra energy (112 total) for the duration of Tiger's Fury and Berserk, and bears get 12 rage immediately with enrage and berserk. Part of this is remnant of the old Intensity talent in the resto tree.

Mangle and Imp Mangle appear unchanged.

Tenth Tier:

NEW:Nom Nom Nom. ........... I can't stop grinning over this talent name, and I seriously hope they keep it. A pure cat ability, when you FB any target at or below 25% health, it'll refresh the duration of your rip on that target. I like.

GONE:Primal Gore. Presumably this is because all bleeds and HoTs and DoTs will inherently crit, now.

NEW:Pulverize. This talent and ability now replace Primal Gore, with Rend n' Tear being its pre-req. It is a bear ability that consumes lacerate applications for extra damage as well as buffing the bear's crit chance for 10 seconds by 2% per lacerate consumed by the attack.

Rend and Tear itself appears unchanged.

Eleventh Tier:

Berserk appears unchanged.

RESTO-for-FERALS

First Tier:

GONE:Imp MotW.

NEW:Blessing of the Grove, increases the damage of Claw (!) and Shred by 4%. These 2 points will be used to open the third tier, in place of the old Imp MotW.

Furor appears unchanged.

Second Tier:

Naturalist is no longer on this tier; it has been moved deeper. You'll need the 3 points of Natural Shapeshifter (which appears unchanged) combined with Blessing of the Grove to open up the third Tier.

Third Tier:

GONE:Intensity. The rage effects of this talent have been put into the new feral talent, Primal Madness.

Naturalist has been moved down to this tier from the 2nd. While the cast reduction now also applies to Nourish, the physical damage boost is unchanged.

OoC and Master Shapeshifter appear unchanged.

It is unlikely a feral will go much deeper into the resto tree than that :)